The Future of Women's Business Enterprise - A Roadmap to 2020

This week I participated in a National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) and Association of Women’s Business Center (AWBC) conference call where the “Roadmap to 2020 – Fueling the Growth of Women’s Enterprise Development” was announced. The plan was graciously accepted by a representative of the White House at the 2010 NAWBO conference, in Washington D.C. This collaborative strategic action plan paves a future for women’s enterprise, which encourages women to collaborate, leverage resources and grow their businesses.

The accelerated growth of women-owned businesses plays a crucial role in the recovery of our economy. A remarkable point that caught my attention is that if women entrepreneurs in the U.S. started with the same capital as men, they would add six million jobs in five years. Two million of these jobs would occur in the first year. The impact of women-owned businesses in our nation is fascinating; in fact according to a recent “Economic Impact of Women-Owned Businesses” report from the Center for Women’s Business Research, women-owned firms in the U.S. have an economic impact of $3 trillion annually that translates into the creation and/or maintenance of more than 23 million jobs, which is 16% of all U.S. jobs. Roadmap to 2020 was developed to fuel the growth women-owned businesses to help meet our nation’s recovery goals.

So, were does the Montana Women’s Business Center fit into the mix? Well, I was pleased to see that among other organizations, the Women’s Business Centers around the country will play a leading role in the success of this strategic plan. The importance of the Women’s Business Center program is recognized with the demand for its services having increased in the past two decades from only nine Women’s Business Centers in 1990 to now over 100 throughout the United States. Our Women’s Business Centers assists over 155,000 women and tens of thousands businesses annually.

The Roadmap to 2020 action plan suggests, “by expanding the role of the Office of Women’s Business Ownership at the Small Business Administration beyond just education and training, to also include the other core functions of the SBA – finance and access to markets. This will enable the Women’s Business Centers to play a more dynamic role in helping women’s businesses grow.”

The Plan also recommends an increase in funding for the Women’s Business Center program, which would allow and encourage us to broaden our scope of support beyond microenterprises and start-ups, to a more “proactively target growth-oriented women in the missing middle.”

As we continue to support the Women’s Rule for Federal Government contracting opportunities, to reach a 5% goal for women-owned business, the Roadmap to 2020 recognizes the importance of the government –supported technical assistance. It suggests that Women’s business associations and Women’s Business Centers be the leading role in providing women-owned businesses with a better understanding of equity positions, potential equity partners, and terms and conditions commonly required by investors and lenders.

Amanda Schultz, Director Montana WBC